As climate change intensifies, it is imperative for policymakers to address the escalating loss and damage it inflicts on vulnerable communities in developing countries. In India's Maharashtra state, these impacts are forcing rural families into life-altering decisions and migrations to work in sugarcane fields, where exploitative practices by contractors, including …
Climate change may increase the incidence of diarrheal disease in Botswana, according to a recent study in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. "Diarrheal disease is a very important public health problem in Botswana," said lead author Kathleen Alexander, who led a unique 30-year analysis (1974-2003) on …
Zambia has agreed to a $50 million loan from the World Bank for water projects including the construction of small dams to help moderate damage from drought and floods in the southern African nation. Without the investments, changing rainfall patterns amid global warming could cost Zambia $4.3 billion over 10 …
Pakistan’s largest metropolitan and the worlds third most densely populated city suffers from severe pollution due to a lack of interest by successive governments in tackling environment degradation. Without any environmental management policies, the city suffers everything, from air pollution to noise pollution; and water pollution to lack of sanitation …
More than 5,500 people had been affected by the prevailing drought in the Polonnaruwa District, Asst. Director of the Disaster Management Centre Upul Nanayakkara said. “Statistically 5,500 people in 14,603 families have been affected by the prevailing drought in the Polonnaruwa District,” he said. Nanayakkara said that the drought had …
ENVIRONMENT The new report issued on September 27 by Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) says with much more certainty that humanity is causing climate change. India has voluntarily undertaken — without legal binding — to reduce emissions intensity of its GDP by 20-25% by 2020 and has a comprehensive …
As per a leaked UN report, CO2 emissions have gone up to 95% from 90% in '07. The United Nations will be releasing its fifth assessment report (AR5) on climate change releasing this Friday, and it paints a grimmer picture of global warming that we had imagined. Despite questions from …
A comprehensive law is on the anvil in Tamil Nadu to regulate groundwater resources. This follows an ordinance promulgated last Saturday by the Jayalalithaa government to repeal the Tamil Nadu Groundwater (Development and Management) Act, 2003 which was enacted by the earlier AIADMK regime. The ordinance comes in the wake …
An NGO has opened a special cell here to promote water harvesting in 11 districts through its volunteers. The NGO aims to carry out around 5,000 water harvesting projects. "We've got a team to provide assistance in implementing rain water harvesting (RWH) projects so that it can be done on …
Even as a large part of Bihar is to come out of the threat of flood the state cabinet on Wednesday declared 33 out of 38 districts as drought-hit while situation in the rest five––Arwal, Banka, Rohtas, Araria and Kishanganj––is being regularly monitored. A central team would visit the state …
Kenya is no stranger to adaptation when it comes to food production. Kenya's cultural and political underpinnings are reliant upon adaptation to current climatic conditions. Present predictions are that drastic adaptation will be necessary once again. According to the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and the Association for Strengthening …
Taking into account deficient rainfall this year, Bihar government on Wednesday declared 33 out of the 38 districts of state as drought-hit. The decision was taken at a cabinet meeting presided over by chief minister Nitish Kumar. Principal secretary (Cabinet Coordination and Secretariat) Brajesh Mehrotra and the principal secretary ( …
The U.S. government spent nearly $62 billion on disaster relief in the two-year period ending Sept. 30, 2012, to help Americans recover from severe storms, droughts, heat waves and wildfires, a new analysis of federal data has found. The Agriculture Department accounted for more than half of all federal disaster …
The strongest scientific warning to date that global warming is man-made may have a muted impact when it is released later this month with many governments more focused on nursing weak economies than on fixing the planet. Many are also still smarting from a failure to agree a global pact …
The World Bank said on Tuesday it was planning "aggressive action" to help developing nations cut emissions of soot and other air pollutants blamed for causing climate change, in a shift also meant to protect human health and aid crop growth. Of its funding to poor nations, almost 8 percent …
The state government has increased the Bihar Contingency Fund (BCF) amount, till March 30 next year, to Rs 1800 crore from the existing Rs 350 crore. After the cabinet meeting on Tuesday, secretary, cabinet secretariat department Brajesh Mehrotra said the huge increase in the BCF has been made mainly for …
Zimbabwe faces its worst food shortages in four years following a drought and poor harvest, the U.N. World Food Programme said on Tuesday, a month after veteran President Robert Mugabe's ZANU-PF disputed re-election. The agency said it was working with the government and other international aid organisations to provide food …
Mahottari district is in the grip of a severe drought in contrast to the torrential rains that have lashed the rest of the country. The Natural Disaster Rescue Committee, Mahottari has urged the government to declare the district as “drought affected” and provide relief to the farmers since they have …
In the present study, the observed variability of monsoon droughts over India has been examined using a drought monitoring index, namely the Standardized Precipitation Evapo-transpiration Index (SPEI). For calculating the SPEI over different time periods, long term (1901–2010), high resolution, monthly gridded temperature and rainfall data sets have been used. …
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has agreed in principle to finance, what is said to be the first-ever directly-funded farm project, multidimensional research project for improving Basmati rice value chain, aiming at production enhancement as well as quality improvement for boosting rice exports. The ADB will fund the $1 million …
Israeli researchers engineer drought resistant plants that could be a game-changer in the global food crisis, requiring less water, yielding bigger harvests, and staying fresh longer. Professor of Biology Shimon Gepstein of Haifa's Technion University pioneered research that may represent a major advance in food supplies worldwide. According to Technion …
